Religious Fervor

It is hard to have guessed that one of the current threats to our 248-year-old democracy would spring from the phrase “one nation under God.” But the following news items from the last few months show the slow creep towards extremist Christian nationalism in the USA:

— A non-binary Oklahoma teen was killed in a high school bathroom. When asked about it, a Republican state senator replied that the teen, and LGBTQ+ people in general, were “filth,” and not welcome in Oklahoma, which he characterized as a “Christian state.”

— The Alabama Supreme Court references numerous passages from the Bible to justify a legal decision stating frozen human embryos qualify as babies, upending fertility support services in the state.

— In a speech, the US Speaker of the House focused not on solutions to the problems America faces, but on bemoaning the decline in church attendance, stating the state cannot serve as a replacement for God. Some in the audience deemed it a sermon.

— Finally, in a campaign video, the former president and GOP front-runner likened himself to a savior from heaven, furthering the belief of some Americans that he has been anointed by God to serve as president. This, without any evidence at all that he ever attends church, or more importantly, is guided by faith in God.

My upbringing in a Christian family is at odds with all this. It was not complex: all humans are to be dignified. Religion, ours, or anyone else’s, should not merge with government. And, honesty (not lying) counts. But now, demonstrably at risk are the health and safety of whole communities of citizens, including the rights of women to have control over their own reproductive decisions and care.

Even more Americans, including many Christians, would be marginalized by the success of elected officials and judges who claim to know what God really wants. By trying to force their sometimes-extreme set of religious beliefs on all of us they replay centuries of world history, repeating the exact same struggle again and again. In our case, the Bill of Rights, the rest of the Constitution and the founders’ vision of a pluralistic society would need to be trumped by religious dogma. Can that really happen here?

Steve Chappuis

Port Townsend